Grand Mother's Funck Biography

Grand Mother’s Funck has enjoyed a successful 20 year history within the music scene. A 13 CD collection of music shows their development. Thousands of people have been funkified by their music at more than 500 performances in Switzerland and throughout Europe. In Switzerland there are very few (no?) venues where GMF hasn't performed. The foundation for this success comes from the simple joy of making great music, which generates an endless source of energy. This joy of making music was the motivation for creating the band in the first place.

Between 1080 and 1993 Burgdorf was a small, peaceful town in Switzerland's Emmental valley (this is where the cheese with the big holes originally comes from). Then, something happened: Five teenagers from the local school found an old James Brown record at the flea market. They were immediately fascinated (to put it mildly) by the music and solemnally swore a pact (as is usual in Switzerland, see Wilhelm Tell et al. 1291) that this (funk!) is what they were going to do for the rest of their lives, effective immediately.

The five boys, which included the local preacher's son, soon started jamming every night, getting home at about the time their peers left their house to go milking the cows.This is exactly when the holes in the Emmental cheese became larger and, although the authorities have dismissed this as a "coincidence", no one really believes it...

The emerging funkateers intensely celebrated their idols, such as Sly Stone, George Clinton and the Godfather himself. All of them turned out to be extremely talented and creative musicians, and they soon started to play their own tunes at Funk parties around the Berne area.

With their first album "Grand Mother’s Funck" in 1995 GMF established a new standard in the Swiss Funk scene. For the second CD „Please Baby Please Baby Baby Baby Please” (1996) they were signed by American Label Greyboy Records (Carl Denson, San Diego).

Now the band was giggin' around 50 times a year all over Switzerland and had grown to nine members. GMF kept inviting vocalists, such as Blues lady Trudy Lynn for the single „Call me“ and Noël McCalla (Manfred Mann Earth Band) for their third CD „Heebie Jeebies Dance“ in 1997.

Then Tamara Canovo joined the band in 1997. Her powerful voice became GMF's trademark and the new sound's impact was felt on tours throughout Germany, France, Italy, Austria and England. Highlights included the unforgettable performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival that same year and the "Working Live" live recording in 1999.

In 1999 GMF borrowed three additional horn players and two percussionists from Picason and started project "Gran Orquesta": Classic seventies movie soundtracks ("Mission Impossible", "Dirty Harry" etc.), featuring rapper Carlos of "Sens Unik". Gran Orquesta played various large Swiss festivals such as Gurten and St.Gallen. One of these concerts resulted in the CD "GMF Gran Orquesta".

American singer Tiza B joined GMF in 2000. This collaboration resulted in "Secrets in Sonic Space" in 2002; The album is a collection of "GMF style grooves“ mixed with R&B and future Funk. This period was the band's closest brush with "pop' music.

GMF Today Eleven firstclass musicians with a 20 years history of working together, combined with a huge pool of creativity, guarantees the ultimate performance. The old funk tradition is still a major part of the GMF sound but the fusion with R&B, hip hop, jazz and electronic music leads the band into a new age - we call it NuFunk. You’ll still be able to groove and dance with it all night long. Just keep on funkin’!